


The Human Race

by Eww22



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Age Difference, Ancestors, Canon-Typical Violence, Grubs, Language Barrier, Loss of Powers, Misunderstandings, Non-Sexual Bondage, Size Difference, Trapped, Unconsciousness, conflicted feelings, minor bodyhorror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-05
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-04-03 00:07:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4079071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eww22/pseuds/Eww22
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU where John's power short circuits after zapping into the trolls Ancestor times meeting the Dolorosa and the grub Signless.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I don't belong here

You don't really know how you got into this mess, but you did. You're in it and you're in it knee deep. Laying there motionless before you is the body of a female vampire troll thing, that has to be at least 7 to 8 feet tall, with what seems to be a small bug/baby hybrid under her arm. Said bug baby was currently releasing the most horrible screeching sound that you probably have ever heard. You think you might have killed her. You didn't mean to, but she was coming at you with what looked like some sort of weird demented bladed saw thing. Hissing and spitting at you in some bug click growling and you just popped her a good one right in the snout and she fell over like a sack of rocks. You really didn't mean to. It was just that she was coming at you, you had no choice! You hope she's alright.

Closer inspection and a few good nudges with your foot and she still doesn't move.  
Oh god... You just killed a mother vampire troll and left a poor, if not loud, defenseless baby all by itself. You double face-palm yourself in dismay. You orphaned a baby! Or at least you think it's a baby, you remember a particular conversation with Karkat talking about how they are little bug like things that hatch out of eggs. A good look at the thing that struggled and kicked under the green trolls arm and yes, it has to be a troll baby, the black hair, and candy corn horns proves it. Ugh, it's so loud though! You feel so guilty and yet you wonder how much time until these weird zappy powers kick up again and zap you into another random place. You hope soon because this thing is really making your brain rattle.

You suddenly feel bad for thinking that. Your father, may he rest in peace, would probably give you a stern fatherly look and shake his head in disappointment. You just killed this things mother and all you can think about is zapping away? How horrible! You have to do something to help it.

Rounding the body you nervously inch your way forward towards the struggling wailing grub. You hesitate slightly before lifting the trolls arm, allowing the bug baby to wiggle itself out from under the body.  
"There you go, little guy. You're free now, I'm sorry bout your mommy-" suddenly the troll shifts and gives a groan making you drop the arm and hastily step backwards. You lift your feet, prepared to fly away, but instead of gliding into the air and into the area of safety you land right back down on your ass, making a rather unmanly sound as your PJs get covered in sand. Alright, vampire Mama troll is not dead. Good for red grub baby, bad for John.  
Speaking of the grub the thing is scuttling toward you. No longer wailing but giving this weird buzzing clicking sound. The hair that it has standing on end on top of its head. It looks mad. You try to back away further but crab walking backwards in sand is really hard and this bug thing is faster than what it should be.

It's as big as a regular baby you think. Not like one of the tiny ones, but like the ones that you often babysat for people back on earth that could babble and sit up by themselves and walk around using tables and other things. It screeches as it makes an attempt to attack your shoe. Little needle sharp teeth digging into your shoe and hooking onto your sock inside. It manages to rip off both as you pull your leg away. You watch in horror as it shakes its head and uses it's back claws to try and shred some of the fabric as it rolls around with it, obviously wanting revenge for it's mother that you had knocked unconscious. You can't help but notice how it oddly looks a bit like Karkat with those nubby horns.

By the time you gather your wits and stand up it lost interest in the shoe and decides to try and make a go at you once more. You try to fly again, but it doesn't work. You end up running around in a circle while the bug chases you, angrily screeching and buzz clicking the whole time. It's so small, but the idea of getting bitten and it chasing you is really scary. You really don't wanna know how it feels like to get bitten.  
You try to access your zappy powers, trying to get out of this place, but nothing's working. You focus on them, really focus, but only manage to distract yourself enough that you end up tripping over tall green vampire mama's leg. You feel baby bug crawling up your leg then, hooked pincers pulling itself up to your back and going straight for your head. You try to throw it off but before you can it's teeth have sunken into your shoulder. A sharp sting and a woozy feeling washing over you as it growls not planning on letting go anytime soon.

This has got to be one of the worst deaths ever. Death by angry bug baby thing. A just death no doubt since it's coming back for revenge. You wonder if it's poisonous, maybe that's why your fingers and toes are feeling so tingly. Oh wow. You're heavy and you can't move. You can't even feel the bite anymore. Is that ringing you hear? Aw shit, from the corner of your eye Mama troll looks like she's waking up and struggling to stand. You hear her clicking again, deep sounds coming from her throat as she touches her face where jade blood leaked from her face.

The last thing you remember was her looking over at you before releasing a small gasp. Then a sudden switch in tone as her lips moved from forming those weird alien syllables to more familiar notes that you could recognize, something along the lines of telling the grub on your back to 'spit it out' since 'you don't know if it's toxic' and then you're out. Vision turning to black as you wonder what dream bubble you'll pop into and how the others will react to your death.  
________

You wake hours later feeling groggy and heavy. Your body hurts and from the feel of it you passed out on the ground again. God damn it Jade you thought she would be nice enough to wake you up this time so you don't get this crick your neck. Your brain feels sore as you try to open your eyes, groaning and shifting to try and sit up only to find that you can't move your hands. What the hell? Further inspection and it looks like they have been tied up behind your back as well as your ankles that are tied up near your wrists. You wiggle a bit, seeing if you could undo your bindings only to find that it really hurts and the weight on your back growls and hisses at you when you do.  
Your mind has to ponder this information before it goes into panic mode at what could be on your back and where he hell are you??? It's dark and the air smells a little humid in here. The way your head is turned you see rock and you think you're in a cave.

You wiggle and the weight on your back grips onto your hoodie while giving out an annoyed yowl. It doesn't let go either until you give up your struggles and lay there. You try to glance over your shoulder but in this position it's a little hard. The only time you catch a glimpse of it is when it stands and does a circle on your back before curling up in between your shoulder blades and your arms yawning. It began to softly buzz and vibrate as it nuzzles its head into your arm and using it as it's own personal pillow. The red grub baby has made a bed out of you. A literal bed. This would be some really cute stuff if you weren't hogtied. Before you can even attempt to make an escape plan a toothed blade is pressed to the back of your neck.  
"Okay, I'll ask this one more time. Who and what are you and state your purpose." You don't have to turn your head to know who the owner of this smooth feminine voice must be. "A new model of drone perhaps? You're too... Bizarre to be anything else, but it's really strange that you're so tiny. Those sounds you make are unnatural. You probably can't even understand me can you? What if you have a tracker? Shit!" She hissed at the end, the blade faltering in pressure. "Ugh, why didn't I do this before? Stupid, stupid! Sorry Kanny your new friend has got to go. We can't risk it." You could feel the blade lift from the back of your neck as she rose it in the air ready to strike down.

You panic for a moment, opening your mouth and stumbling to find the right words.  
"W-wait! I'm not a drone! I swear, I don't even know what those are," you panic as you try to wiggle again, "Please don't kill me! I mean you no harm. I don't have a tracker, I don't even wanna be here, I just zapped here on accident, don't kill me." You close your eyes awaiting your death for the second time, but nothing comes. Silence and that strange buzz from the grub filled the room. You forced yourself to open your eyes, that heart of yours pounding in your chest as you looked up to the surprised female troll who seemed to be frozen in place.

"You... You can talk?" She asked baffled, as her blade went back down into a more comfortable position that is not threateningly looming over your body.

"Yes I can talk! Now let me go!" You demand, just wanting to get out of these horrible tight bonds that were holding you down. You were just about to bark out more complaints before something hit the back of your neck and before you know it you are thrust into the world of darkness again.  
Oh, John Egbert, what kind of mess have you gotten yourself into?


	2. Not in this Atmosphere

When you crack open your eyes for the second time your head hurts worse than before and you're not sure if you want to try getting up anymore. Nausea twists in your guts and you lick dry lips, you're really dehydrated. You don't remember a time you felt this awful. Your head foggy, your back stiff, and your eyes can barely open, they feel sticky and crusty. You force them to open longer than 5 seconds and you notice that this time, you're sitting up. Hands tied above your head while your legs are tied up in front of you, you're leaned up against.... You don't really know what you're leaned up against. It's kinda soft you guess, but it's purple and you think it kinda might be glowing. Usually, you'd think this kind of stuff is neat, but right now you're a bit tied up, so you're not able to fully appreciate it's nifty-ness. With your back occupied with the wall at least you know there isn't a vicious buggy on you.

You groan when you raise and bend your legs to try getting some feeling back in you. Everything throbs and you think you can hear your knee muscles groaning along with you. How does this keep happening to you? Waking up like this once should be enough! It's all that crazy vampire's fault!  
Speaking of crazy vampire, you focus your eyes with a squint and look around. The space is rather empty and it's pretty dark. The only thing lighting the cave seems to be the dimly glowing purple moss on the cave walls. Looking off to your left you spot what looks like a personal pile of belongings that your assuming probably belongs to Mama Green. It looks like it's just a couple of bags, nothing that's really interesting or life saving.

Using one of your raised shoulders you rub at your eyes as if it's going to help clear things up and help you see in the dark further. You curse at yourself, how dare you have bad eyesight? Ugh! You really need your glasses.  
That's when you realize that your glasses are gone.  
Oh god, your glasses are gone! When did they go missing? You remember having them on when you zapped to this universe/place/where ever the hell you are. You remember having them in the desert, did you have them when you woke up the first time before getting knocked out again? You're pretty sure you did, but you can't remember. Now that you think back to it what if you didn't have them then? Oh god, what if they got lost in the desert! Your head hurts too much for this much thinking.

You panic internally and perhaps a bit out loud to yourself. You are so focused on your own thoughts that you don't hear the wet shlop as something hits the ground from somewhere out of site from you, you do however begin to hear soft scuttling as it came within 12 feet of you. You became silent as the muffled sound began to grow louder, coming closer and closer until in the dim light you see a blurred reddish blob moving toward you rather quickly. Your heart makes a terrified leap, you were just about to cry out, but it non-threateningly bumped it's head into your shins.

You realize after it gives a small click that it's the weird, if not oddly cute, baby grub thing. It's currently trying to climb its way up your leg, but it's little bug feet can't find the right grip on your god teir pajama pants. You feel him pawing at you, chittering in what you assume to be demand. Without even thinking you sort of just scoot your legs back down, laying them strait in front of you. It chirps in approval before hoisting itself up and climbing into your lap. It's head bumps against your stomach as it gets itself situated, nuzzling you with a pleased chitter before it plops on its side, snuggling up to your thigh, before letting out that buzzing sound and vibrating. You think it might be doing some weird form of purring.

That realization makes you coo, that's cuter than a puppy giving kisses to a bunny. If it didn't already have a mother you would have surely adopted it. What did it's mama call it again? Candy? It must be a little girl then. Of course, it would be, it's so obvious. You're sure Casey and Candy would have gotten along great. They would have been the bestest sisters, you're sure of it. Sure her name doesn't match the Con-Air theme and you'd have to watch out for those teeth, but it doesn't really matter. Candy, that it's a fitting name for her! Look at that sweetness and her color reminds you of one of those red hot candies. That would be perfect! From what you experienced earlier she has a little bite to her too! You snort and try to suppress a giggle from your own joke, that was a good one although that bite really did hurt.

You get lost in your thoughts for maybe an hour, since you can't do anything else while you're tied up, thinking about all the possibilities and reactions you would get if you brought your could-be-daughter back to the meteor. You were thinking how proud Jade would be to be an auntie for the second time and how Candy could probably assist you in a couple of pranks, maybe she could be your little sidekick as well! You come back to reality when the tingling in your legs get to you. Little Candy has effectively put them both to sleep and for some odd reason, now that you're paying attention, your lap feels... Wet? Oh god. No, no, no, no! Did she pee on you??? Eww! Ewwww! You don't know what to do, you can't do anything with your hands tied up and your legs bound together. Gross! You feel so gross.You shift your legs and you suddenly feel really really sick... Is... Is that slimy? Did she.. Did she defecate upon your lap???

You screech, you literally screech like a girl because you cannot even handle that kind of gross. You take back anything you ever said about Candy being cute, she is an evil foul monster! Nasty morbid demonic bug demon who bites you and poops on you. You disown the very thought of her.

In your time of panic a couple things happened. The room suddenly filled with see-able light, the grub was somehow taken off your lap, and the large 8 foot female troll now sat in front of you in a terrified panic and began hastily talking to you and you don't even know what she's saying cause you're screaming at her in panic and you can't seem to get your words out. Her words become clear to you when her hovering hand shoves itself against your mouth, causing your screams to become muffles.  
"Oh Dear, shh it's okay. Calm down. Shh. What's wrong, please calm down. Someone might hear you. Please," her voice is hushed and hurried and it does calm you down for some odd reason. "Alright, I'm going to take my hand off and I need you to tell me what's wrong okay?" You nod to her, hiccuping as you try to take a breath through your nose and let it out slowly. Her eyes look through yours for confirmation before she removes her hand.

"Candy, she..." You gulp and pause trying to get your words strait, "I think she pooped on me and it's really gross and can you just untie me or something so I can get this stuff off?" You were about to continue with more whining, but the look the older troll gave you shut you up because she's looking down at your pants and that makes you look down as well.

On your lap was a darkish translucent green color that is currently drying and seemed to be flaking off at the corners. It was all over your lap and you even had a smudge on your stomach. You feel yourself get kinda nauseous, more so when Vampire troll mama scoops some onto her fingers.  
"Ugh, don't touch it!" you tell her flinching away in disgust, "That's gross!"  
"This is sopor," the way she says it, like it's so obvious and that you must be a little handicapped, makes your cheeks flush with color, you're almost too embarrassed to ask the next question,  
"What is sopor?" "Sopor, it's what you're supposed to sleep in, even drones use it, it keeps the-" She pauses and stares at you. It's really making you self-conscious, she's looking at you hard as if thinking and not understanding. The hand that touches your cheek catches you off guard and makes you flinch at the obvious temperature difference between your skin and her hand. You can feel your blush grow brighter. What seems to be realization brightens in her green eyes.  
"Red... Are you..." She begins to ask before pausing as if really thinking about her question, "Are you a lusus?" You have to pause for a moment because you have no idea what she is talking about. A lusus? Isn't that what trolls call their parents/guardians? "It makes so much sense!" She urged, grinning from ear to ear. "Lusus' have an automatic detest for sopor and after Kanny saw your blood he was instantly attached! I thought you might have been a drone or some weird new type of animal but you must be a mutant lusus! That's why you're so bazaar and pale! Your hair confused me at first, but so did Kanny when I first saw him in the caverns! You're a little early to be headed towards the brooding caverns, though, but I am not one to judge the job of a lusus." Her weapon appeared in her hand and in a blink of an eye your wrists were free along with your feet. "Your eyes are a little weird, though, they are what really threw me off being white and all, but it must be some sort of mutation as well," She gasped softly as if realization had hit her, "You knew didn't you? As soon as he was hatched you knew he was going to be culled if you didn't come for him early and steal him before he was found. I've heard of lusus snatching grubs up before the trails but never actually witnessed it. Your bond must be strong! Probably because of your blood."

You have no idea what she is talking about, but at least your hands and feet are free to move around as you please. You're not sure if it would be rude to just stand up and try to get this stuff off your pants or maybe you should just sit here and listen to the rest of her speech. She seems to be on a roll now. You'd feel a little bad just getting up, so you wait a moment to let her continue before clearing your throat to catch her attention. When it doesn't work the first time you do it a little louder and that makes her pause, "Yes?" she asks, blinking thoughtfully. You make sure you have her attention before opening your mouth, but she stops you with a gasp, "Ohh! You must want him back!" Taking the sleepy grub that had been stuffed under one of her arms she hands him to you. "My apologies."  
"No problem," you say automatically since she apologized and take him, but then stop yourself and remember what you were going to say, "Wait, no, I just wanted to know if you had any spare pants I could wear or something cause this is gross,"  
"Oh, why yes of course! I have tons of fabric and I can make you some, it's one of the things I took with me when I left!" She chirped grinning. For a big 8-foot troll vampire she was pretty.... not scary anymore especially when she got up and went to her bag that was left in the corner of the room.

Now that the room was bright you could see things much better, even though everything was still a bit blurry. Speaking of which, "Do you have my glasses by any chance?"  
"I took them off when you were sleeping, I didn't want them to get cracked. It's kinda weird that you have them, though, considering your a lusus." Pulling out some simple what looked like black tights. "What does a lusus need clothes for anyway? Oh well, I am not one to judge. Here, you can barrow these and I'll have something more proper for you later. Your glasses are to your left. I didn't want to lose them so I put them close to you." Indeed, as she had said they were right there at arms reach away. After securing them o your face your world came into focus again.

Now that your vision came back to you, you stand up and head over to the offered pants. With sleepy buzzing grub under one arm, you're not sure how you're supposed to put them on or where you're supposed to put them on. "Can you hold her?" You ask, offering up the bug baby,  
"Him," she corrected.  
"Wha-?" You began but were unable to finish the complete word before being interrupted,  
"Him, Kankri is a male," You feel a little embarrassed now that you had gotten the name and gender so wrong.  
"She is? I mean -he- is?" You're now trying to correct yourself,  
"Yes, although I suppose you'd want to change his name now. I just picked it out since calling him Wriggler or Grub seem harsh to the hear ducts," Hear ducts you snort a little since it's so troll of her to actually say,  
"Oh, no, Kankri is good. It suits him," You wonder why this name sounds a bit familiar, but you brush it off. Handing him over to the large troll before finding yourself a nice rock to hide behind and change.

The tights that were handed to you are... long. Very, very long. Reach up to your lower chest long while also stretching out to the point where you think you can fit another person inside of them. You have to fold the bottoms up a little at the ankles a little bit for them to fit your legs, but at least your shirt can hide the longness of the top after you figure out how to hold them up. Who on Earth wears something like this? You remind yourself that you aren't on Earth anymore before you try to tuck it somehow and step out. "You got a belt for this or something?" When she looks at you she giggles, a hand covering her mouth as if it could suppress it from sounding rude.  
"Come here, I will help." You do as your told and come to her. She pulls out a needle and thread and you really have no clue what she did but in the end, you don't have to hold them up any longer. "That feel better?"

"Yeah, but my legs are still numb," You pat your thighs for good measure as if it's going to help you get the feeling back into them.  
"Oh that's just the sopor, it'll last a minute but they'll come back to you soon."

The silence between you after is a bit awkward or at least it is to you. She seems completely pleased with the silence. The bug baby, though a bit flaky with sopor, is sleeping in her lap while she puts her supplies away in her duffel bag. You hate the quiet, so you break it.  
"What's your name?" you might as well ask, "I'm John Egbert,"  
"Hmm?" she looks up humming in question. She answers anyway before you can repeat yourself, "I am... Or was Mothergrub care assistant Porrim. Although now I guess that title has been stripped from me. I can never go back to the caverns now. I'm just Porrim now,"  
"Why?" You can't help but ask. She looks up as if puzzled before her features softened in understanding.  
"Of course, being a lusus you wouldn't understand. I ran away. You see, not too long ago I found Kankri scuttling around in the corners of the cavern. Under orders I was supposed to cull him immediately since there was a mutation and I almost did." She seems sullen about this confession, "I couldn't though, not after I picked him up and seen his face. I've done it so many times before, I never even thought about it, never regretted it. It's my job, I've always done my job and I've always just done my job without hesitation." Carefully she plucked the grub from her lap, using a hand to brush of the flaky bits before handing him over to you once again as if you wanted him. "I seen his face and something in me snapped. I couldn't stand to see this one of all of the grubs die. There is just something about him that made me feel like I had to take him away and take care of him. I want to keep him safe, although now that you're here I guess that it was pointless for me to continue on. I feel a bit stupid for coming all this way now. I didn't think that a lusus would come for him, but here you are." When she stood, you had to strait your neck a bit to look up at her face. "I have no clue what to do now. I don't know why I'm telling you all this, but I really thought that I was doing something when I took him out of there. Like something important." Running a clawed hand through her hair she looked down at you, a small sad smile on her lips. "I see great things in him, I had this strange idea that I would be able to watch him grow up, but guess I'm no longer needed."

You feel so sad for her, that was a great story, it's so sad to watch her go. Wait... Is she leaving? Oh no, she's grabbing her duffel bag and everything!  
"Wait no!" You call at her, "No, you can't go! You can't leave me with him! I don't even know where we are and I don't know when my powers will kick up again! I'm not even a lusus I'm not even from this universe!"  
That makes her turn, "What?" You have a lot of explaining to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright I'm gonna stop it here before I get too far because I've been working on this for DAYS. Like I keep writing and writing and getting interrupted. This took forever!


	3. Goodbye

Alterainia, that's where you managed to zap to you learned after a quick question session with Porrim(aka Mama green). You've already slept three times, five if you consider the times you got knocked out, so you figure you've been here a few days.

Your first day you panicked and feared the worst. You had so many things to do and you really do hope your friends are alright. You spent most of this day trying to convince Porrim you weren't crazy. She wanted to leave Kankri in your care and head off, but you don't want to suddenly vanish and orphan the poor little guy. After some debating and lots of convincing on your part with the troll, she agreed to stay and wait until your powers kick back up, but only if you all stayed in the safety of the cave. Apparently, drones might be looking for her since she ran away.

You tried to explain to her how you got here now you're pretty sure she thinks you're insane, but humors you by going along with it. She said that she hit you pretty good that one time and you knocked your head on the ground really hard so you might have suffered damage and obtained some false memories. You know you're not crazy and you wait for your powers to come back, you try to focus, to remember what if felt like when you were zapped from place to place. The electrical feeling coursing through your body as it transferred each individual molecule in perfect unison without fail. You think of the places you want to go, back on the ship, to your shrunken planet, in your messy living room with Jade and Dave Sprite. Thinking about them makes you sad, though, this is the first time in about 3 years after all that you've actually been apart.

Your windy powers aren't kicking up either. You tried to focus on creating a wind current or even just a little breeze, what you get is a slight giggle from the sidelines from your onlookers. You make a fool of yourself and try to fly only to end up falling flat on your face. Nothing is working, even your pajamas that cleaned themselves were just getting dirtier and dirtier the longer you stay in this cave. It's not working, everything you had is gone. The only thing that has actually stayed with you is your mangrit strength, but you haven't really had anything to test it on besides the female trolls face that one time. You're really sorry about that by the way and you've apologized repeatedly. She's forgiven you and laughed, but you're still super sorry about that.

Kankri, who you still find utterly adorable, is rather attached to you. Often scurrying along after you as you pace the cave in an attempt to get your brain working again. He's always making chittering noises and other little critter sounds to you. You can always tell when he gets tired because he starts screeching until you agree to sit down to let him crawl in your lap, or at least hold still long enough to let him climb up with his sticky grub arms and attach himself to your body. Usually, he likes to cling to the back of your hoodie right under your long hood. He's out of the way and he's not heavy enough to choke you with his weight so you don't mind.

You go through the days like this, almost blissfully peaceful from your usual days of hectic shenanigans. A new daily routine of waking up, eating whatever you have in your sylladex (Thank god you store all your leftovers in there cause you're too lazy to go to the kitchen to put them away), walking around the cave, making failed attempts at flying, and repeat. It's the fourth time you willingly go to sleep that Porrim's patients runs out. You wake up to find all of her belongings are packed and little Kankri is fussing and wiggling as she cleans the slime from his body.  
It feels like you only slept 3 hours, are you lazy or are they up just really early. Rubbing the sleep from your eyes you make a noise of question at her, still a bit too tired to actually make words. The way her head whips in your direction makes it obvious that you weren't supposed to wake up. The potential thought of her trying to leave you alone by yourself in this weird alien planet cave has your mind quickly clearing away the smog of sleep.  
"What?" Probably not the most thoughtful of questions but it seems to make your point across as she turns her head away, embarrassed that she had been caught.  


It takes her a moment to answer, probably thinking of her words, "I can't wait around like this any longer. It takes two nights for them to notice and four for them to send out search drones to collect the husk so it doesn't stink up the taverns. Those drones won't find one. They'll search and they'll see that I fled and they'll come find me. If they are dumb enough they might think I was devoured by the undead. Considering how improved they are they will not be fooled by my weak attempt at covering my tracks." Porrim pauses to take in a shuddered breath, "I'm not ready to die. I'm not willing to give up my life over a lusas who thinks it has powers." 

She did have a point, though. If you were in her shoes you probably wouldn't stay with you either. You should crazier than one of Dave's weird comics! You don't have any other choice, though. You don't know how to survive here on your own. You might be godteir and be unkillable but you don't want to find out what starvation feels like.  
"okay," you say and she makes a confused face at you, "can I come?"

"What? You're not upset?" she seems so confused, "I just tried to abandon you and take your grub!"  
"It's fine, it happens. Can I come? " the look on her face says a strong unsure surprised maybe. The noisy little-frustrated grub though seems to be saying yes though by the way he tries to squirm out of her arms towards you.  
"Alright, but you better be able to keep up. I don't want to be slowed down by your little legs." She lets the grub go who hurriedly scurried his way over to you.  
"It's fine, believe it or not, I'm pretty quick. I came first place in the mile at my school a couple times. I won all the gold star stickers. All of them," You can tell that she doesn't understand a word you said. You stand, giving a small yawn and stretch, your back pops in a way that makes you miss your bed so much. After Kankri firmly attaches himself to his place on the back of your hoodie you ask "so are we going right now?"

"I... I actually haven't the slightest idea. All of this wasn't exactly planned for." She admits, "The sooner we leave the better."  
"Alright, I guess we could just wing it." You don't have anything to carry except Kankri, it looks like Porrim already had a handle on her bags so you were all set. "ready to go?" You ask with a sleepy grin already making your way to the exit.  
"It's still daytime so we should wait till nightfall. Being a lusus it wouldn't be wise for us to travel at this time. I don't think-" She began but you cut her off because she's simply rambling nonsense.  
"What, so you can try to leave me again? I think not!" You giggled, obviously teasing. "Plus why wait for when you can't see anything? We might as well walk while we can,"

At the entrance of the cave Porrim had covered the opening with... You actually don't know what this is. Some sort of tarp thing? It's stuck and completely sealed shut, you can't see an ounce of daylight beyond it. That's pretty cool! You hear Porrim protesting, coming forward hurriedly like she was panicking. You don't bother to really listen because it's all the same thing. 'we can't walk in the day and blah blah blah blad'.  
You give a hard tug on the tarp and it's surprisingly really easy to take off. What's also surprising is the sudden burst of heat and blinding brightness that happens when you are suddenly exposed to this planet's bright red sun.


	4. It started

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: bodyhorror dealing with sunburns and maybe curious alien grossness.

"John, are you.... Molting?" the curious jade blood asks as you pick off some of your peeling skin.  
"What? No! I'm just peeling, it's a sunburn. " The way she looks you in the eye is unsure, but it doesn't stop her from scooting up closer to stare at your burned skin in fascination. You feel so tiny when she's up this close, even when she's sitting down she's still so much bigger than you are. You scoot away from her to keep from straining your neck and to keep her prodding claws away from your still tender upper body.

Who knew that Alterania sun was this hot? When you had first stepped out of the cave you were nearly blinded, but only because you had been in the dark for god knows how long. After your eyes adjusted from behind a raised arm you got to see where you really were; out in the open with miles upon miles of hills of hot sand everywhere you looked. The cave looked like the only oasis for miles. Marked with strange colored vegetation and a small pond off to the side.

You nearly had your arm ripped off from how hard Porrim jerked you back into the cave. Clawed hands instantly on your face checking your eyes and asking if you were alright before going for the grub attached to your back. After a thorough inspection and a lot of convincing she dubbed you and the grub okay. Kankri was completely ignorant to what had happened; apparently, your hoodie is really effective at keeping the sun away you're told by Porrim after she curiously inspected it. Which is why you are in your current state after your hoodie and pants got donated to make a traveling sun pack for the grub who apparently can go blind if he even glances at the sun.

It's been about a week and a half since you left the safety of the cave, wearing nothing but the tights that Porrim stitched up for you. You two had come a long way from the desert which was about a day or two that way. Camping out between night and day and going until all three of you were too tired and grumpy to go any further, needless to say, you have never been so exhausted in your life. Night time was the hardest since the growing grub seemed to wake up as soon as the sun went down. Which is why you all stopped here and there to rest a few hours before daybreak. Each time hoping that he would tire himself out before daybreak.

"Sunburn? I thought you said the sun wouldn't harm you?" Porrim gives you a questioning look before curiously picking up a discarded skin flake to inspect it. "Are you sure you're not related to some sort of hiss-beast perhaps?"  
"Eww, don't touch that," You protest smacking it out of her hand, "No, I'm not related to a... Whatever that is. This is just my body's way of protecting itself. When you get sunburned it's supposed to heal up into a tan I guess? So it's just preparing me for more sun. It's not that big of a deal, natural human function."  
"Hyoomun? What on Alterania is that?" She asks with a chuckle,  
"Human," You correct her, "That's what I am, it's like... My species I guess? Like how you're a troll, I'm a human."  
"How strange, I've never heard of a human before. I haven't even seen you in our books during school feeding. How queer." She hums softly in thought, her attention though was turning towards your back again.

"I guess I'm unique?" You joke before having to fend the troll off after she tried to pick at you once again.

It could be worse you suppose, at least you're safe in the thick brush that surrounds you with plenty to eat after you accidentally punched a bear looking thing to death. Well, actually you just kinda punched him off a hill and dear old gravity did the rest. When you get back to the ship you're going to tell Jade and Dave Sprite a completely different story because being startled while you were doing your business behind a tree is not a very flattering tale. Anyway, at least your safe and comfortable with a full belly, the company is quite pleasant too if you do say so yourself.

"Is it safe for him to eat that?" Porrim questions gesturing with her head,  
"Eat what?" You get the answer as soon as you look over to find the grub scurrying away with a good piece of your discarded skin. "Oh my god, Kankri, that's gross! Eww! Spit it out!" You made an attempt to go get him, but after he crawled under a thorn bush you decided to let him have this one. Weird aliens and their gross habits or whatever, you're getting too tired to even care anyway. You're not going to let it ruin your night.  
"Hey, Porrim?" You ask, deciding to make small talk after you settled back down around the now dying embers of what used to be your cooking fire, "How do you know how to cook so well?"  
"In the caverns, we had to take a lot of school feeding on hive keeping and such." She answers in her usual straightforward manner. "We have to cook for the whole hive with whatever the shipments from the mainland bring us since we aren't allowed outside to hunt or gather anything ourselves. It's not bad but I must say, though, fresh meat is much better than the poor excuse of protein that they give us to eat." You nodded in agreement to that. "Where did you learn how to take out a cholarbear with one punch?" She giggled making you grin.  
"Well, gravity did most of the work on that one, but I think I get it from my dad. He was always really strong you know."  
"Did he train you?" You had to laugh at that question,  
"No, he spoiled me. He gave me anything I ever wanted and encouraged me to reach for the stars and do my best. I sorta had to train myself, and let me tell you, at first I couldn't even lift a hammer." Thinking back to all those years ago kinda made you sad, so you decide to change topics. "Hey, Porrim, where are we going?"  
"We're going to the Eastern caves,"  
"The Eastern caves? Why what's there?"  
"Caves of course." She giggled again, before answering honestly, "Well, we can't do much else right now. Not with a bright red grub at least. If he's found then he'll most likely get squished or eaten. I've heard some trolls even use mutant exoskeletons as jewelry. So we are going to hide out in the caves until he gets big enough to pupate and turn into a real troll. After that we can go anywhere we like."  
"So," you ask after a moment's hesitation, "Where will we go after that?" This made her confident smile fade with uncertainty.  
"That's... Another topic for later I suppose. Right now we just have to focus on not being found." You could accept that for now, you supposed, "Now, before we get too far ahead of ourselves with conversation we should try and sleep a bit. You mind being the look out first?" Even as she says this she is going for her bad to grab her jar of sopor to at least rub on her face and horns to fall asleep.

"Yeah, sure. Get some sleep, I'll wake you in a few hours for my turn."

You know, for all of the movies you watched and all the lame manga that Dave made you read you never quite understood the suckiness of being the lookout for someone on the run. It gets super quiet with only the sound of chirping nightlife to keep you from going completely insane, and since you can't risk being found as soon as cooking is done the fire goes out. The twin moons might be bright but it's still so dark that it's a little paranoia inducing. You guess you're lucky to have the grub as a distraction who by now has emerged from the thorn bush in what seems to be an attempt to hunt after more of your peeled sunburn. You should really do something about that, but it's funny watching him try to learn to be sneaky sneaky. You try to tire him out. Chancing after him and tickling at his sides while he scurries away until it becomes a game for the two of you.  
Time goes by like watching water boil and in the end you really only tire yourself out. By now you learned that if you watch the moons really closely you can tell when the sun comes up. Since the pink one is still visible you still have about an hour to kill.

After giving Kankri more bear meat he obviously tired himself out enough to simply demand attention in the comfort of your lap. Purring in that weird way of his while chewing absentmindedly on his sunpack that you had draped over his little body. He is so warm cuddled up against your stomach and Porrim's duffle bag is rather comfortable against your back. You close your eyes to just rest them for a moment until your turn, after all, you only had about an hour left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well hello there~ it's been a while stranger! :D It took a really long time and a birthday later but finally I got this posted. It has been in the editing process for months, like I started on this as soon as the last chapter came out and boom! Forever later it is finally over. I will try to be better at this and post more chapters quicker!
> 
> Also, if you have any thoughts, questions, or even little edit point outs please talk to me. I love when people talk to me. :D


	5. With a kick and a punch

In your dreams there is only black. You try to speak, wondering if you're just trapped between bubbles, but every time you do, there's nothing but the eternal void and a voice that tells you to keep sleeping. You can't question the voice since you don't have one of your own. You wonder if you even have one here in this weird nothingness. You suppose you were spoiled on the ship, you still were you. Like even when you fell asleep you were never sleeping, just awake somewhere else. At those times you always had something to do, now you're just wasting time and you're drowning in your own uselessness while that soft voice tries to pull you farther into the pitch black of dreaming. There is so much that you want to do, but you're trapped here. What were you even supposed to do? It was something important, but you can't find yourself to care. You don't care about anything right now, you're too busy pleasantly drifting. Is this dreaming? Is this what it was before? Who cares, as long as you get to just sway on the currents of this blissful nothing. It's empty but it feels okay.

Your dark world shatters when you jerk awake to cover your ears. The brush around you trembling to the deafening roar that seems to be coming from all around you. There is no time to react before you see a hulking mass drop from the darkness of the treetops and upon the startled awake form of Porrim who screeches and hisses as it starts to tear at her with swift massive limbs. Horror overtakes you and you're literally frozen on the spot, unable to do anything besides watch as poor Porrim yowls in agony while trying to kick and beat the thing off of her.

Kankri is the one who breaks you of your stunned spell as he vibrates and gives a cat like growl, scratching urgently at your side and head-butting his way under you while the sunpack tangles around him from his panic. You tear your eyes away from the scene before you but something hurls your body to the side with a swipe of something large and hard as soon as you tried to turn your head. After a single bounce your body skids, you would have went quite a distance if it wasn't for that thorn bush that Kankri had been hiding under before.  
It's still dark out, it's around the time when the moons hide away before the blistering sun starts peeking out, but you can still make out the horrific creature straight out of nightmares that stands before you. An almost canine like creature in the face, a pure glowing white and angular in shape with multiple claw-like limbs save for the front ones that looked like some sort of imitation of raptor arms that tuck in towards its body. It's teeth bared, but only because it didn't have lips to cover them with. The skull-like head snaps it's jaws at you, snarling and rattling as something raised behind it. It looks like a long tail with beaded like segments, ending the last segment with a curved teardrop shape at the end that pointed at you in an offensive manner.

It advances towards you, chattering it's teeth at you while those pupiless red eyes stare you down. Something about those eyes makes you freeze, you can't look away, you know you're going to die, one of those crab-like claws is going to snip your head right off. It's only 4 feet away from you now you want to run, you want to move, but your body won't let you. Your body gives a random jerk when Kankri gives out a mewl of distress. Looking down at the trembling grub it was obvious that he wanted you to come for him, looking at you with those pleading eyes with his little body trapped in the sunpack while curling up against the duffle bag that had been knocked over when you were sent flying. Stupid, stupid, Kankri! He attracted the attention of the monster that now curiously steps towards him with those spider-like limbs. That tail curling once again almost straight over its head like a.... Like a scorpion. That's when it hit you. It was a weird scorpion creature and it was going to sting Kankri! He was so little, that stinger would go right through his chubby little body.

Without thinking you lunge your body forward, adrenaline rushing through your veins as you toss yourself at the creature. Surprisingly it's not that tough, the exoskeleton having already cracked after taking impact with your shoulder. It doesn't fall over like you intended it to but at least you knocked it's legs out from under it. You feel a sharp pinch on your side, the tail that was wildly swinging in panic nicking you at first, but with a good grab and twist the stinger pops right off, a tendon the only thing that actually keeps it attached as you let it go to swing along with its erratic movements.

You would have inflicted even more damage if you hadn't been swatted off and onto the ground.  
"MINE!" A deep voice bellows, "GET OUT! LEAVE!" The being before you pants, trembling, covered in blue as well as splashes of a familiar green. From the curving, double tipped 'y' shaped horns and wild black hair you identify them as a troll but with... Darker skin? An aggressive troll who is now holding the hissing whimpering nightmare who is nearly as big as he is.  
The hand that lands on your shoulder makes you tense, but after identifying it as Porrim's you calm down.  
"Let's go, come on," She whispers hurriedly, before making the first move to get her duffle bag. Seeing as how Kankri is skittering your way having freed himself you pick him up first, Letting him cling to you while you gather all of your loose items and get the fuck out of there at almost a running pace.

"What was that??" You ask as soon as you are at a decent enough distance.  
"Territorial highblood," She huffs in a whisper, sniffling and giving off a sort of whistle like sound from her nose, "We were in his hivering."  
"What? How- I mean, I didn't even see a building,"  
"Doesn't matter it's his territory and highblood rules." You tried to speak, but she hushes you so you travel in silence, only stopping to put Kankri in his sunpack and your items away before the sun fully came up.  
This is all your fault, you fell asleep when you were supposed to be watching, you were so stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid! You mentally beat yourself up in silence. Feeling so awful about yourself until Porrim stopped the both of you at the border of the forest. It seems that you've come to a bright green field. Setting her bag down the first thing she does is put her nose back into place with a painful crack. "What about you? Are you okay?" She asks, but instead of letting you answer she grabs your stuff, setting it on the ground and examines you here and there.  
You must say, thorns must be the creation of nightmares because having them dislodged out of your bare arms and back is just about cry worthy. She examined the small cut in your side and before you could identify it she put her mouth right upon it and sucked, making you gasp and cover your mouth before you could make an embarrassing crying sound. After spitting out a bit of watered down blood she wipes her mouth and takes a quick peek at Kankri before sighing.  
"He's okay, we are all okay," she whispers, sitting right down on her duffle bag to simply breathe and run her hands through her messy hair.  
"Are you serious? We're all okay?" You can't believe that, especially with her so banged up, "Just look at you, you got the worse of it! It looks like you just got into a fight with a tiger and lost,"  
"I'm fine," She assures you, but you don't take that for an answer.  
"Let me... Let me at least wrap the bad ones up for you." You don't know how to exactly do that, but since this is all your fault you kinda have no choice but to do what's right.  
She admits defeat right there to your surprise and after fumbling around for a moment with the front of her tattered dress before it falls down around her waist.

At first you panic and look away, she's a lady after all and-... And she has no nipples? Nor a belly button and the lumps on her chest don't even look like breasts, more like tiny barbie bumps on an overgrown doll. What she does have however are small welt like slits on her sides, as well as cuts all over from the claws that so viciously tore at her.  
Flushed a small tint of green on her cheeks she hands you a roll of bandages that don't quite feel like what you're used to, but you take them anyway. You feel like you should clean them and as if reading your mind she hands you a cloth that you wet down a bit with your own saliva after a few instructions and began wiping at her cuts that seemed to simply ooze her bizarre blood color right after. After spending perhaps too much time on them she urges you to move on, assuring you that they are going to bleed until they properly get clotted and you wrap her up. It's not the most professional looking of wrap ups but at least she seems pleased with it.

"I'm really sorry," You blurt out making her jump a bit after she had been so focused putting everything back into place and her dress back on, "I fell asleep and let that happen. I'm so sorry, I just got so tired out of nowhere and I closed my eyes for just a second and-" She stops you by putting a hand on your mouth.  
"It's okay, it wasn't your fault," You get confused and try to protest but she gives a soft pat to your lips before her hand curls around your cheek to pat you there with a curled palm, "They were bluebloods." She answers you as if that was going to make everything clear.

A good minute goes by in confused silence, but a small grin cracks over her lips and she gives a halfhearted chuckle while her hand falls away. "I'm sorry, I keep forgetting you don't understand a lot of troll culture. Bluebloods often have special powers that allow them to hypnotize and control other beings. His were obviously not that refined otherwise none of us would have woken up and they would have killed us right there. The big buffoon got too excited and just dropped right down like a screeching holler-beast. It was quite humorous really." She giggled, but you were left dumbfounded, that was funny? "It's a good thing that you managed to harm his lusus, that imbecile forgot about me and rushed to his aid when he heard him cry out." You began to wonder just how lucky you were, if it wasn't for Kankri distracting the beast and getting the monsters attention you all would have been dead.  
"Do... Lusus have powers too?" You ask curiously,  
"Sometimes, but not always," she murmured as she checked on the now sleeping Kankri. "As soon as we make it passed the clearing we'll settle down again. If I remember correctly the forest we are coming to next is pretty thick. Who knows, we might just find a cave to settle down in and we can both rest for a while, Mother knows we need it." She smiled, as hopeful as ever but continued onward while swinging her duffle over her shoulder as if she hadn't just been mauled by an overly aggressive 10-foot troll. You offer to carry it for her, but she declines and the two of you continue forward after strapping the sleeping grub to your chest. You suppose that's the only thing you two can do now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeeeey guys! Once again it's been a while, but this thing has been in editing ever since I posted the last chapter. XP I know I am lazy, but it's a bad habit to break. I hope you guys are doing well and wish me luck as I now prepare to go to work. Tough times in the kingdom, lol. Next chapter I'm thinking about posting some artwork, nothing fancy just some pencil drawings, but I thought it would be good to have comparison pictures or something. It's good for you. lol :D


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